Many years ago in the mid-1950s, the Jersey Central tower in White Haven burned and the interior was gutted. I was a small kid and I remember when they were cleaning out the interior prior to demolition, someone walked out with the clock and I can still hear it crashing to the ground when he dropped it. I was too small to think about rescuing it and in the ensuing years have wondered just what it looked like. A former tower operator informed a friend that it was somehow connected telegraphically with a master clock. Does anybody have a photograph of what could possibly be a standard clock used by the CNJ in their towers at that time?

Bernie Perch

Bernie,
When I was an enginner on Conrail there was still a mechanical clock in Bank Tower in Red Bank on the NY & LB. It was a Self Winding Clock Company clock connected to the Dispatcher's office. At a set time each day all of the clocks would be synchronized. I believe it was a service of Western Union.
Keith

Keith,

Thanx for the information. Now all I need is a photo of one in situ. It was the above mentioned situation and my grandfather repairing clocks that piqued my interest in repairing clocks with one ending up on the WW&FRy. If I get a photo, I will take it to the above mentioned ex CNJ employee and see if it was like the one in the tower. Now that I know the manufacturer, I will try the Antique Clock Price Guide.

Bernie

Here is what the clock movements themselves looked like:


Note that the application of a clock on this principle in a tower requires an additional piece of equipment (a synchronized lock for the long heavy hands); this is described in patent 305632.

If this was a repeater clock, the mechanism would be wound electrically, a bit like the 'recommended' procedure for watches with wind indicators (but more frequently). This could restrict the portion of driving mainspring actually used to run the clock in a way that would permit precise timing. (The winding was done with a large battery circuit, which would keep the clock independently running more than a year without interruption) I would note that this feature is not necessary in a 'clock' that is simply a minute repeater of an accurate master clock using a telegraphed time signal (see patents 327897 and 338773 to see how the timing signal was arranged) so it is possible that each local clock had its own accurate escapement, which would run freely whether or not receiving a synchronizing signal, with the signal being used to align the hand 'to the minute' when received as in a pure repeater system. In a railroad system, where local time must be correct whether or not telegraph or wired electrical systems fail, it seems more than likely that a 'regulated' but autonomous time reference would be desirable.

I do not find any reference to display of seconds, but I do not think it would be difficult to arrange to 'jump' a second hand to correct zero position using any of the methods used to synchronize a minute hand. Whether this would be independent of, or conjugated with, the advance of the minute hand, I can't say; "automatic" correction for daylight saving (etc.) would also be possible, but I have no indication as to whether that was done automatically.

Bernie, this is what the clock in Bank Tower looked like.
Keith

I thought that railroad clocks, like railroad watches, were required to be marked with Arabic numerals?

That only became a requirement fairly late in the game when standard time zones were created. I have a pocket watch specifically made for railroad service that not only has Roman numerals, but it was a hunting case watch. Both of those features were later banned when watch requirements were codified. That plus the fact that standards were set individually by each railroad. There was never and industry wide standard for watches and clocks.

Keith

Guys,

Thank you for all the above information. The information on the movements is a little mind boggling because I am new to these types of movements. I enjoyed the video and will look at it a few more times. That is a beautiful clock.

Bernie

Bet it's 18 size, too. Is it in one of those 4-ounce or heavier silver cases?

All the early railroad watches were 18 size, and new hires often bought 'older' first-line watches (which were still perfectly good railroad timekeepers!) because that was what they could more easily afford. "Casey Jones' watch" (as preserved in the museum in Jackson, TN) is an example of this.

It's more than a little ironic that Webb C. Ball, with his comments about 'smokestack jewels' over 17, was instrumental in the requirement that railroad watches be 19 jewel or greater ... with no regulation on what the 'extra jewels' contributed to accuracy or reduction in wear. Both Howard and Elgin, for example, made very high-grade adjusted "19 jewel" watches which are nothing more than 17-jewel watches with an added pair on the mainspring barrel arbor (where, to put it mildly, wear is relatively limited and friction is not too significant!)

Something I wondered about 'back in the day' was whether the free-running escapement in these clocks was set just a little fast, with the second hand locking and then releasing when the 'momentary' sync signal was received from the switch on the master clock's escape-wheel arbor. I thought that here you could have tables of deviation, just as with chronometers used for navigation, with the understanding that you'd correct tower 'clock time' by whatever deviation seconds might be observed from the time the telegraph signal had ceased to be provided.

Thing was, no employee was allowed to adjust the second hand on his watch at any time 'relative to what a master clock indicated' - he couldn't unscrew or remove either of the bezels on the watch. Only the designated time-service people were supposed to do that. This appears to have been radically different from operation in earlier times, when the movements were fitted with explicit 'hacking' levers that would stop the watch escapement directly, then 'flip' the balance into full oscillation when released, so the watch could be set to the second from a (presumably) accurate regulated clock or repeater's time service.

I have an Elgin pocket watch with the "railroad style" face. It has the name "B. W. Raymond" on the face.

Who was he, and what if any connection did he have to railroad timekeeping?

(I acquired this from a pawn shop in Pittsburgh in 1963.)

18 size 15 jewels safety pinion made by the Peoria Watch Co. and marked "For Railway Service."
The first watches made for the Pennsylvania Railroad were made by the United States Watch Co. located in the Marion section of Jersey City, NJ. "Marion" was the name of the wife of one of the principals of the watch company and many of the streets in that neighborhood are still named after watch company officials. The U.S. Watch Co. factory is long gone. It was located along the PRR's P&H branch the former mainline to Exchange Place and the Hudson river. P&H stood for Passaic and Harsimus Cove.
Keith

Benjamin W. Raymond was a former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois and later one of the main financial backers that formed the Elgin National Watch Co. The "B.W. Raymond" model was one of several that met the standards as approved railroad grade watches.

Keith

BANK... I used to love to visit when The Kaiser was on duty. I can't remember the clock, though. Wish I had taken some pictures...

These are all related, and to the Howard watch company as well.

Marion begat the Independent Watch Co. (Fredonia; the evolved form of the 'butterfly' you see on many Marion movements) which then supplied machinery for Peoria.

Some of my favorite movement designs.